Table 1.
Overview of articles investigating brain alterations in SCI subjects without or with NP included in qualitative synthesis.
| References | Modality |
HC (n) |
SCI (n) |
Pain characterization |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chen et al. (53) | sMRI* | 13 | 13 | VAS at MRI acquisition |
| Chen et al. (54) | sMRI, rsfMRI | 11 | 11 | VAS at MRI acquisition |
| Jutzeler et al. (55) | sMRI | 31 | 28 | EMSCI pain questionnaire, NRS (0–10) |
| Mole et al. (56) | sMRI | 18 | 30 | Below-level NP >1 year, NRS (4–10) |
| Yoon et al. (57) | sMRI, DTI, PET | 10 | 10 | ISCI basic pain dataset, NRS (0–10) |
| Gustin et al. (58) | DTI | 45 | 23 | IASP assessment, NRS (0–10) |
| Min et al. (59)§ | rsfMRI | 18 | 18 | VAS (0–100) at MRI acquisition |
| Widerström-Noga et al. (60) | MRS | 24 | 54 | MPI-SCI, NRS (0–10), pain diary |
| Gustin et al. (61) | MRS* | 21 | 22 | IASP SCI pain taxonomy, VAS (0–10) |
| Widerström-Noga et al. (62) | MRS | 24 | 68 | MPI-SCI, NRS (4–10) |
| Stanwell et al. (63) | MRS | 10 | 10 | Pain interview and assessment |
| Pattany et al. (64) | MRS | 10 | 16 | Pain interview, drawings, NRS (0–10) |
Summary of articles included in qualitative synthesis. Details include neuroimaging modality, number of SCI subjects with or without NP, number of healthy controls, and NP characterization used to differentiate or characterize SCI subjects. Ranges from 0 to 10 or 0 to 100 are commonly used to depict “no pain” to “worst pain imaginable” for NRS and VAS.
DTI, diffusion tensor imaging; EMSCI, European Multicenter Study about Spinal Cord Injury; HC, healthy controls; IASP, International Association for the Study of Pain; ISCI, International Spinal Cord Injury; ISCIP, International Spinal Cord Injury Pain Classification; MPI, multidimensional pain inventory; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging; MRS, magnetic resonance spectroscopy; NP, neuropathic pain; NRS, numerical rating scale; PET, positron emission tomography; rsfMRI, resting-state functional MRI; SCI, spinal cord injury; sMRI, structural MRI; VAS, Visual Analog Scale.
Study also included task-based fMRI results omitted in qualitative synthesis.
Study did not identify whether pain was nociceptive or neuropathic.